Wood floor nosing and method of making same

ABSTRACT

A wood floor nosing comprising: a wood plank of length having a prefinished top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposing end faces each extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface, a first side face, a second side face, and a plank bevel extending along the length between the first side face and the prefinished top surface, and a cap moulding having a first cap face mounted along the length to the first side face, a second cap face extending along the length and adjacent to the first cap face, and a cap bevel extending along said length between the first cap face and the second cap face; wherein the cap bevel and the plank bevel cooperate to form a groove between the wood plank and the cap moulding.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/013,027, filed Jun. 17, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wood flooring and nosings associated with stairs.

BACKGROUND

Nosings are crucial flooring materials used to finish a wood floor adjacent to or otherwise on a staircase. Factory finished wood flooring is coated with flat-line finishing machines, but since nosings are shaped, nosings have to be either vacuum-coated, sprayed or misted in order to apply appropriate surface finishing. Since nosings represents a small part of the entire floor production the floor manufactures outsource the nosing manufature to others. The outsource facility will try and duplicate the color by using similar finishes, stains and sheen levels, but since the process and equipment is different the appearance of the finish and color on the wood floor planks and on a nosings may vary slightly. Further, a majority of the nosing is a horizontal surface with a smaller shaped side surface on one side of the horizontal surface, which is problematic since the horizontal surface is visible adjacent to the horizontal surface of the wood floor and therefore differences in sheen and colour are very noticeable to the naked eye. Further, since the nosings are near changes in grade (at the edge of a stair), the nosings and differences in sheen/colour are more apt to be noticed, as a person navigating the stairs will look at the region of the floor near the nosing during navigation of the stairs.

Further, a third dimension to mismatches in nosing and wood flood finishes is in the form of texture (wire brushing, scraping and glazing), which is popular today and therefore one should also have a nosing that is close to matching a pre-finished floor in terms of texture as well, which is very problematic when manufactured by different manufacturers as noted above.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to provide a wood floor nosing to obviate or mitigate at least some of the above-presented disadvantages.

In an aspect, a wood floor nosing comprising: a wood plank of length having a prefinished top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposing end faces each extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface, a first side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, a second side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, and a plank bevel extending along said length between the first side face and the prefinished top surface, the first side face and the second side face opposing to one another; and a cap moulding having a first cap face mounted along said length to the first side face, a second cap face extending along said length and adjacent to the first cap face, and a cap bevel extending along said length between the first cap face and the second cap face; wherein the cap bevel and the plank bevel cooperate to form a groove between the wood plank and the cap moulding along said length.

In a further aspect, a method for assembling a wood floor nosing, the method including the steps of: preparing a first side surface of a wood plank for mounting with a cap moulding, the wood plank of length having a prefinished top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposing end faces each extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface, the first side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, a second side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, and a plank bevel extending along said length between the first side face and the prefinished top surface, the first side face and the second side face opposing to one another; positioning the cap moulding adjacent to the side surface, the cap moulding having a first cap face for assembling along said length to the first side face, a second cap face extending along said length and adjacent to the first cap face, and a cap bevel extending along said length between the first cap face and the second cap face; and applying a fastening element for affixing the first cap face to the first side face to secure the cap moulding to the wood plank.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other aspects will now be described by way of example only with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nosing;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a cap moulding of the nosing shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 a,b,c are alternative embodiments of the nosing of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4 a,b are alternative embodiments of the cap moulding of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an alternative embodiment of the nosing of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a further alternative embodiment of the nosing of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an example method of assembly of the nosing of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 8 is a plan view of application of the nosing of FIG. 1 to a staircase of a building.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will now be described with reference to the drawing figures, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. For purposes of clarity in illustrating the characteristics of the present invention, proportional relationships of the elements have not necessarily been maintained in the drawing figures.

The following detailed description of the invention references specific embodiments in which the invention can be practiced. The embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments can be utilized and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The present invention is defined by the appended claims and the description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense and shall not limit the scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Referring to FIG. 1, shown is a wood floor nosing 8 having a wood floor plank 10 of length L having a prefinished top surface 12 (e.g. a pre-applied stain—including pigment—and a pre-applied protective film such as a varnish), a bottom surface 14, a pair of opposing end faces 16 each extending between the prefinished top surface 12 and the bottom surface 14, a first side face 18 extending between the prefinished top surface 12 and the bottom surface 14 and extending along said length L, a second side face 20 extending between the prefinished top surface 12 and the bottom surface 14 and extending along said length L, and a plank bevel 22 extending along said length L between the first side face 18 and the prefinished top surface 12, the first side face 18 and the second side face 20 opposing to one another. It is recognised that the plank bevel 22 can be existing or can be removed and then reformed during processing/preparing of the first side face 18 as further discussed below.

The wood floor plank 10 can be made of an engineered wood floor plank, a solid wood floor plank and/or a laminate covered (i.e. as part of the prefinished top surface) floor plank. Referring to FIGS. 3 a,b,c, shown are alternative embodiments of the wood floor plank 10 with the second side face 20 having a corresponding connection structure 36 for interconnecting with a corresponding connection structure 38 of an adjacent wood floor plank 11. For example, the connection structure 36 can be a tongue 40, a groove 42 sized to accept the tongue 40 (e.g. formed by a spline), and/or a recess 44 sized to accept the adjacent wood floor plank 11 and overlap with a top surface 13 of the adjacent wood floor plank 11. It is recognized that the connection structure 36 also has a corresponding plank bevel 22 commensurate with the bevel 22 of the adjacent wood floor plank 11, if present.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the wood floor nosing 8 also has a cap moulding 24 having a first cap face 26 mounted along the length L to the first side face 18, a second cap face 28 extending along the length L and adjacent to the first cap face 26, and a cap bevel 30 extending along the length L between the first cap face 26 and the second cap face 28. When the assembly is made from the two separate pieces of the wood floor plank 10 and the cap moulding 24, the cap bevel 30 and the plank bevel 22 cooperate to form a groove 32 between the wood plank 12 and the cap moulding 24 along the length L. As such, it is recognized that that the cap moulding 24 and the wood floor plank 10 are not manufactured as an integral piece of material, rather there exists two opposing faces 18,26 that are affixed to one another during assembly of the wood floor nosing 8. The bevels 30, 22 provide the advantage of hiding or otherwise inhibiting notice of mismatches in height of the face 18 and the cap face 26 when assembled, thus helping to also avoid a tripping hazard of a person passing over the juncture between the cap moulding 24 and the wood floor plank 10. It is recognised that a profile shape of the second cap face 28 (e.g. arcuate) can be other than shown in FIG. 2, for example as shown in FIG. 4 a or any other profile shape as desired, as long as the faces 18,26 are configured to mate with one another. Also, as shown in FIG. 4 b, the cap moulding 28 can be without the leg potion 34 (see FIG. 2) and as such assembled with or without the leg portion 34 to the wood floor plank 10, as desired.

Accordingly, it is advantageous that the bevels 22,30 cooperate to form a “V” groove or depression between the cap moulding 24 and the wood floor plank 10. It is recognised that the bevel 22 can be of the same size (e.g. length of bevel surface between surface 12 and face 18 is the same as the length of bevel surface between face 26 and face 28) and of same but opposite orientation (e.g. angle with respect to the top surface 12 is the same as the corresponding angle with respect to the face 28) to that of bevel 30. Alternatively, it is recognised that the bevel 22 can be of different size (e.g. length of bevel surface between surface 12 and face 18 is different—shorter or wider—as the length of bevel surface between face 26 and face 28) and of same but opposite orientation (e.g. angle with respect to the top surface 12 is different—shallower or steeper—as the corresponding angle with respect to the face 28) to that of bevel 30.

In terms of the finishing of the cap moulding 24, one option is where the prefinished top surface 12 includes the pre-applied stain and the pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding 24 is attached as an unfinished moulding (i.e. without having respective pre-applied stain and pre-applied protective film to the face 28 and/or bevel 30). As such, post assembly of the cap moulding 24 to the wood plank 10, a stain corresponding (similar to or otherwise exact as) to the pre-applied stain of the surface 12 and a protective film corresponding (similar to or otherwise exact as) to the pre-applied protective film of the surface 12 are applied to the cap bevel 30 and the second side face 28. Alternatively, the prefinished top surface 12 includes the pre-applied stain and the pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding 24 is attached as a finished moulding including a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film, such that all of the pre-applied stain, the pre-applied protective film, the stain and the protective film exists prior to assembly of the first side face 18 and the first cap face 26 to one another. In any event, it is recognised that the top surface 12 of wood floor plank 10 always has the pre-applied stain and the pre-applied protective film existing prior to assembly of the first side face 18 and the first cap face 26 to one another.

Referring again to FIG. 1, it is noted that the first side face 18 and the first cap face 26 include planar surface portions that are positioned appropriately parallel (e.g. both being at an angle of 90 degrees with respect to their adjacent respective surface 12, face 28) to one another to facilitate mounting alignment of the cap moulding to the wood plank. As shown in FIG. 6, it is recognised that the first side face 18 and the first cap face 26 can be at parallel angles other than 90 degrees with respect to their adjacent respective surface 12, face 28. A further embodiment is shown in FIG. 5, whereby the faces 18, 26 can have cooperating connection mechanisms of a tongue 40 and a groove 42, as desired, along with the parallel portions of the faces 18,26 to facilitate assembly and alignment of the two faces 18,26 with respect to one another.

Referring to FIG. 2, the wood floor nosing 8 can have the cap moulding 24 having a leg portion 34 adjacent to the first cap face 26 and extending along a portion of the bottom surface 14 inwardly from the first side face 18, the leg portion 34 having a thickness T extending from the bottom surface 14. This leg portion 34 can be used to help position the relative height of the face 28 (and corresponding bevel 30) with respect to approximately matching the height of the adjacent surface 12 (and corresponding bevel 22). To assist in matching (as closely as desired) the relative heights as mentions, a spacer 36 (of adjustable thickness) can be mounted between the leg portion 34 and the bottom surface 14, to help account for the first side face 18 being shorter in height between the prefinished top surface 12 and the bottom surface 14 (accounting for the height of the bevel 22) than a height of the first cap face 26 (between the leg portion 34 and the face 28 accounting for the height of the bevel 30) mounted thereto.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 7, described is a method for assembling the wood floor nosing 8. The method can include the steps of: step 100 preparing the first side surface 18 of the wood plank 10 for mounting with the cap moulding 24; step 102 positioning the cap moulding 24 adjacent to the side surface 12; and step 104 applying a fastening element for affixing the first cap face 26 to the first side face 18 to secure the cap moulding 24 to the wood plank 10. A further optional step can include post assembly, applying a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film to the cap bevel 30 and the second side face 28. A further optional step can include, as part of the preparing, forming a planar surface on the first side face 18 for positioning appropriately parallel to a corresponding planar surface of the first cap face 26, such that the planar surface on the first side face 18 and the corresponding planar surface of the first cap face 26 facilitate mounting alignment of the cap moulding 24 to the wood plank 10 to assist in making a resilient attachment between the two via the fastening element(s). A further optional step can include, as part of said preparing, forming the plank bevel 22 between the prefinished top surface 12 and the first side face 18 along the length L after forming the planar surface on the first side face 18. It is recognised that the fastening element can be: one or more nails along the length L through the mated surfaces 18,26; can be one or more nails along the length L through the mated surfaces 14 and leg 34 (with or without the intervening spacer 36); one or more staples along the length L through the mated surfaces 18,26; can be one or more staples along the length L through the mated surfaces 14 and leg 34 (with or without the intervening spacer 36); one or more screws along the length L through the mated surfaces 18,26; can be one or more screws along the length L through the mated surfaces 14 and leg 34 (with or without the intervening spacer 36); and/or an adhesive (e.g. glue) appropriate for bonding the material of the cap moulding 24 to the material of the wood plank 10.

A further optional step can include mounting the spacer 36 between the leg portion 34 of the cap moulding 24 and the bottom surface 14 due to the first side face 18 being shorter in height between the prefinished top surface 12 and the bottom surface 14 than a height of the first cap face 26 mounted thereto, wherein the cap moulding 24 has the leg portion 34 adjacent to the first cap face 26 and extending along a portion of the bottom surface 14 inwardly from the first side face 18, the leg portion 34 having a thickness extending from the bottom surface 14. It is recognised that the thickness of the leg portion 34 can be used to hide a top portion of a riser 50 of a stair 52, as shown in FIG. 8.

As shown in FIG. 8, not drawn to scale, the wood floor nosing 8 can be used on a staircase 54 to finish a wooden floor 56 forming the top level of the staircase 54. Optionally or alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8, the wood floor nosing 8 can be used on the staircase 54 to finish a wooden stair 52 forming intermediate level(s) of the staircase 54 between the top of the staircase (one floor/level of a building) and the bottom of the staircase 54 (the next floor/level down of the building).

The wood floor nosing 8 addresses issues of mismatching in finishes between the top surface 12 and the cap face 28 because a majority (e.g. 90%) of the nosing 8 is composed of the factory finished plank (comprising the horizontal plane of the top surface 12), the other minority (e.g. 10%) is preferably a shaped surface (e.g. not horizontal) on the (vertical plane) as the added cap moulding 24. Since the incident light on the shaped portion of the cap surface 28 will reflect on that plane differently than on the top surface 12 to a naked eye of an observer, tolerances of differences in the finishings (e.g. colour, texture and/or clear/translucent film) for these two adjacent surfaces 12,28 can vary slightly while remaining acceptable. The end result is that the wood floor nosing 8 can provide a pre-finished wood floor nosing 8 with surfaces 12,28 that are a better match to the adjacent wood floor (e.g. plank 11) because most (e.g. majority surface 12) of the nosing 8 can be made from the same prefinished material that makes up the adjacent floor 11.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all the ends and objects hereinabove set forth together with other advantages which are obvious and which are inherent to the structure. It will be understood that certain features and sub combinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and sub combinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims. Since many possible embodiments of the invention may be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is also to be understood that all matters herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted as illustrative and not limiting.

The constructions described above and illustrated in the drawings are presented by way of example only and are not intended to limit the concepts and principles of the present invention. Thus, there has been shown and described several embodiments of a novel invention. As is evident from the foregoing description, certain aspects of the present invention are not limited by the particular details of the examples illustrated herein, and it is therefore contemplated that other modifications and applications, or equivalents thereof, will occur to those skilled in the art. The terms “having” and “including” and similar terms as used in the foregoing specification are used in the sense of “optional” or “may include” and not as “required”. Many changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications of the present construction will, however, become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the specification and the accompanying drawings. All such changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention which is limited only by the claims which follow. 

I claim
 1. A wood floor nosing comprising: a wood plank of length having a prefinished top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposing end faces each extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface, a first side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, a second side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, and a plank bevel extending along said length between the first side face and the prefinished top surface, the first side face and the second side face opposing to one another; and a cap moulding having a first cap face mounted along said length to the first side face, a second cap face extending along said length and adjacent to the first cap face, and a cap bevel extending along said length between the first cap face and the second cap face; wherein the cap bevel and the plank bevel cooperate to form a groove between the wood plank and the cap moulding along said length.
 2. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the prefinished top surface includes a pre-applied stain and a pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding is attached as an unfinished moulding, the pre-applied stain and the pre-applied protective film existing prior to assembly of the first side face and the first cap face to one another.
 3. The wood floor nosing of claim 2, wherein post assembly of the cap moulding to the wood plank, a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film are applied to the cap bevel and the second side face.
 4. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the prefinished top surface includes a pre-applied stain and a pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding is attached as a finished moulding including a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film, such that all of the pre-applied stain, the pre-applied protective film, the stain and the protective film exists prior to assembly of the first side face and the first cap face to one another.
 5. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the wood plank is selected from the group consisting of: an engineered wood plank; a laminate coated plank; and a solid wood plank.
 6. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the first side face and the first cap face include planar surface portions that are positioned appropriately parallel to one another to facilitate mounting alignment of the cap moulding to the wood plank.
 7. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the plank bevel is finished with the stain and the protective film of the cap moulding.
 8. The wood floor nosing of claim 6, wherein the second cap face is arcuate.
 9. The wood floor nosing of claim 1 further comprising the cap moulding having a leg portion adjacent to the first cap face and extending along a portion of the bottom surface inwardly from the first side face, the leg portion having a thickness extending from the bottom surface.
 10. The wood floor nosing of claim 9 further comprising a spacer mounted between the leg portion and the bottom surface due to the first side face being shorter in height between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface than a height of the first cap face mounted thereto.
 11. A method for assembling a wood floor nosing, the method including the steps of: preparing a first side surface of a wood plank for mounting with a cap moulding, the wood plank of length having a prefinished top surface, a bottom surface, a pair of opposing end faces each extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface, the first side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, a second side face extending between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface and extending along said length, and a plank bevel extending along said length between the first side face and the prefinished top surface, the first side face and the second side face opposing to one another; positioning the cap moulding adjacent to the side surface, the cap moulding having a first cap face for assembling along said length to the first side face, a second cap face extending along said length and adjacent to the first cap face, and a cap bevel extending along said length between the first cap face and the second cap face; and applying a fastening element for affixing the first cap face to the first side face to secure the cap moulding to the wood plank.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the prefinished top surface includes a pre-applied stain and a pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding is affixed as an unfinished moulding, the pre-applied stain and the pre-applied protective film existing prior to said affixing of the first side face and the first cap face to one another.
 13. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of, post assembly, applying a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film to the cap bevel and the second side face.
 14. The wood floor nosing of claim 1, wherein the prefinished top surface includes a pre-applied stain and a pre-applied protective film and the cap moulding is attached as a finished moulding including a stain corresponding to the pre-applied stain and a protective film corresponding to the pre-applied protective film, such that all of the pre-applied stain, the pre-applied protective film, the stain and the protective film exists prior to the assembly of the first side face and the first cap face to one another.
 15. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of, as part of said preparing, forming a planar surface on the first side face for positioning appropriately parallel to a corresponding planar surface of the first cap face, such that the planar surface and the corresponding planar surface facilitate mounting alignment of the cap moulding to the wood plank.
 16. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of, as part of said preparing, forming the plank bevel between the prefinished top surface and the first side face along said length.
 17. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of finishing the plank bevel with the stain and the protective film of the cap moulding.
 18. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of finishing the plank bevel with the stain and the protective film of the cap moulding.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the fastening element is selected from the group consisting of: a nail; a staple; and glue.
 20. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of mounting a spacer between a leg portion of the cap moulding and the bottom surface due to the first side face being shorter in height between the prefinished top surface and the bottom surface than a height of the first cap face mounted thereto, wherein the cap moulding having the leg portion adjacent to the first cap face and extending along a portion of the bottom surface inwardly from the first side face, the leg portion having a thickness extending from the bottom surface. 